Defending Victorian PGA Champion Ashley Hall is coming off the best season of his career to date which was launched with a thrilling win at Huntingdale in 2016.

After entering the tournament with virtually no status, Hall took out last year’s Championship with a playoff victory over David McKenzie marking his first win in six years and the beginning of a fantastic season for the Huntingdale local.

“It was great start it really spurred me on and I thought I could have a good year, then it was a bit rough in the middle where I had to stick with it,” Hall said.

“The end of the year was really good and it turned out to be an awesome year, it certainly turned out to be my best ever.”

The conclusion of his season culminated in another playoff at the Emirates Australian Open with none other than World Number 6 Jordan Speith, who went on to win the tournament.

“I’ve been in a lot of playoffs, both times I’ve won the Vic PGA in a playoff, I’ve also lost two in the U.S and lost one in New Zealand so it’s nothing new,” added Hall.

“The playoff at the Australian Open was absolutely amazing, not many better settings than the 18^th hole at Royal Sydney especially with so many people yelling and screaming.

“I would’ve loved to have hit a better putt but it is what it is.”

From losing his card on the Web.com Tour at the end of 2015 to taking the Australian Open down to the wire with one of the game’s greatest players, bookended a somewhat bizarre season for Hall who, like many other Professionals on Tour, began from the bottom in 2016.

“It’s a funny game that we all love, I started from scratch again through Q-School, but it happens all the time, we just saw Todd Sinnott last week go from Q-School to winning the Myanmar Open on the Asian Tour.

“It proves that everyone is really good and anyone can win any tournament, that’s the way I’m going to think playing in some of the bigger tournaments this year.”

One of those bigger tournaments includes Hall’s second visit to Royal Birkdale for The Open in July later this year, he’ll be using the upcoming events in Australia to fine tune his game on a variety of courses leading in to golf’s biggest stage.

“These two tournaments (Vic PGA and Vic Open) are pretty important because they’re played on bouncy courses especially next week at the Vic Open where it’ll be very windy,” Hall said.

“I’ll be searching for places to play that are windy and have some bounce; I went on a golf break during the break down to Tasmania and played in some wind at King Island and Barnbougle so I might even make another trip down there because it’s so different to what we normally play in.

“I’ve got half an eye on that week in July, everything is already organized and it’s always on my mind.”

Hall spoke on his chances of going back-to-back this week at Huntingdale where he believes his knowledge of his home course will set him apart from the pack this week.

“I know the place backwards so I’m not stressed about getting some course knowledge I certainly feel like I’ve got the most out of anyone in the field.”

However, Hall admitted he will be hampered by an ongoing elbow injury he has been working on how to manage while playing.

Hall said the niggling injury has the tendency to flare up during play, something the Victorian needs to focus less on while on course.

“I have no idea what happened to my elbow or why but I’ve had quite a bit of treatment the last few days on it, it hurts a bit sometimes.

“It’s more waiting for it to get painful, I found in Singapore it was doing more damage in my head rather than the elbow itself being the reason for some bad shots.

“So I’m just going to try and expect it’s going to start hurting and hopefully I won’t hit any soft, stupid shots without it hurting.”

He won’t be resting on his injury as an excuse this week with a priority goal in mind of defending his title here at Huntingdale, one of his favourite courses and tournaments.

“I’d certainly like to win again for sure, I really like this tournament I’ve won it a couple of times and funnily enough I’ve always missed the cut when I’m defending, maybe I should just start thinking about making the cut and hope for a half decent week rather than winning!”